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Entries from March 2015

March 30, 2015

We are delighted to announce that 62 pets were adopted last week! We are so grateful to our amazing adoption counselors for their wonderful help uniting these pets with new, loving families. You can help spread the word about our available pets and lifesaving work by "liking" and sharing our social media posts on Facebook and tumblr. You can also follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Our adoption center is open every day of the week: Monday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Friday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m and Sunday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Visit our website to see some of our dogs and cats currently available for adoption, for directions to our Robins-Starr Humane Center, to view the programs and services we offer and more.

Adoption Specials

Our friends at Best Bully Sticks are providing a special treat for all dog adopters. While supplies last, every dog adopted from our center will take home a free BullyBox treat sampler pack!

Match Finder tool

If you have not seen the pet you’re looking for among the cats and dogs currently available at our humane center, we recommend that you try our free Match Finder tool. This online tool is designed to help you find your new best friend by automatically emailing you when a pet matching your desired criteria is available. If you have any questions, please contact our amazing adoption team at 804-521-1307.

Offsite adoptions

In addition to having many wonderful cats at our humane center, we also have several felines at the Carytown location of PETCO. If you would like to learn more about these felines or set up an appointment to meet them in person, please call our adoption team at 804-521-1307.

Alumni updates

Our staff and volunteers love to know what our precious adoptees are up to, so please keep us posted! If you would like to share a picture or story of your adopted pet, please send us an email. If you would like to see your pet featured on one of our social media sites, please tell us in your message that we may share your update.

To read the biographies of our regular bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires a first and last name to be used as your screen name.

March 27, 2015

When Napoleon entered our care he was nearly blind and suffering complications from untreated diabetes. After surgery for cataracts and 7 months of rehabilitation, he was adopted and became a beloved member of the Butler family.

I, along with many other deeply committed Virginia animal welfare professionals, worked very hard to persuade the General Assembly to pass Senate Bill 1381, patronned by Senator Bill Stanley, and we were thrilled when it did pass by a large margin. Recently, Governor McAuliffe signed that bill into law, thereby ensuring that private animal shelters in Virginia will have to be “operated for the purpose of finding permanent adoptive homes.” This is a standard that I believe almost all private shelters in Virginia meet and that the public expects all of them to meet. However, the outlier is the facility in Norfolk operated by the ironically named People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). That facility is licensed in Virginia as a private shelter but has for many years killed about 90% of the unfortunate dogs and cats that enter it. Recently, PETA workers also stole Maya, a young healthy Chihuahua, from the porch of her own home after many efforts to lure her off the porch had failed (all this is captured on video the veracity of which has never been challenged by PETA). They killed her that very day along with several other apparently young and healthy dogs and cats they took from the same housing area.

Despite the fact that PETA spent a great deal of time, money and effort fighting Senate Bill 1381 tooth and nail, the votes were not even close: 95 to 2 in the House and 35 to 1 in the Senate. PETA continued, after the bill’s passage in the General Assembly, to try to get the Governor to veto the bill but failed at that effort as well. Considering their vast financial resources and extensive connections in this state, it is quite a statement that they lost their efforts by such enormous margins.

The Richmond SPCA took Scarlet into its care when her guardian passed away. After stabilizing her insulin levels to manage diabetes, we found her a wonderful home with the Evangel familly.

So, now it gets interesting. PETA, which saw the bill as a big enough threat that they fought it desperately, now is saying that it makes no difference as a law. They and many of their advocates are arrogantly claiming that they will do nothing differently. The new PETA party line is that they have always tried to get animals adopted but, as they are quoted in the Huffington Post, “PETA will also continue to serve those most in need in our community—the old, sick, and injured animals, who comprise most of those PETA takes in when no one else will.” Note the telling use of the word “also” which makes clear that they see old, sick and injured animals as not being among those that they will get adopted. It would appear that what PETA believes that these groups of animals “in need” are actually in need of is death.

I find this appalling. One of the richest animal organizations in the world is saying that old, sick and injured animals cannot be adopted and must be killed. That certainly is not our philosophy here at the Richmond SPCA and is not a philosophy that is acceptable today given the enormous progress that we have made in saving homeless animals from death.

Stark (formerly Maestro) was adopted by the Roberts family after the Richmond SPCA brought his seizure condition under control and performed lifesaving surgery to remove his spleen.

The PETA statement that no one else takes in old, sick and injured animals is simply a lie. The Richmond SPCA accepts into our care many senior pets and we see age as no impediment to their being adopted. We also take in thousands of sick and injured animals annually and provide veterinary treatment and rehabilitation to every one of them whose condition is treatable (which is almost all). If PETA’s statement is suggesting that they do not and will not provide such veterinary care and rehabilitation, then they need to make that position clear to the public and own it. They need to explain publicly why an organization operating on annual budget in excess of $35 million is not willing to treat and rehabilitate the sick and injured animals in its care but rather has killed and intends to continue to kill all of them.

When PETA spokespersons are asked by reporters and others to clarify what are their health and behavioral standards for determining that an animal should be killed and who exactly is making that determination, they never will give an answer. If, as it would appear, they are killing all of the elderly, sick and injured animals that come into their care and spending none of their many millions of dollars in assets to treat those that are treatable and save their lives, there is just one word for that. Reprehensible.

Robin Robertson Starr is the chief executive officer of the Richmond SPCA. To read her biography or that of our other bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires both your first and last name to be used as your screen name.

March 26, 2015

We are joyous to announce that 59 pets were adopted last week! We are so grateful to our amazing adoption counselors for their wonderful help uniting these pets with new, loving families. You can help spread the word about our available pets and lifesaving work by "liking" and sharing our social media posts on Facebook and tumblr. You can also follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Our adoption center is open every day of the week: Monday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Friday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m and Sunday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Visit our website to see some of our dogs and cats currently available for adoption, for directions to our Robins-Starr Humane Center, to view the programs and services we offer and more.

Adoption Specials

"Mutt Madness!” All adoption fees for adult dogs are reduced by 15 percent throughout the month of March.

“Feline Fridays” All adoption fees for adult cats will be reduced by 25 percent every Friday in March.

Our friends at Best Bully Sticks are providing a special treat for all dog adopters. While supplies last, every dog adopted from our center will take home a free BullyBox treat sampler pack!

Match Finder tool

If you have not seen the pet you’re looking for among the cats and dogs currently available at our humane center, we recommend that you try our free Match Finder tool. This online tool is designed to help you find your new best friend by automatically emailing you when a pet matching your desired criteria is available. If you have any questions, please contact our amazing adoption team at 804-521-1307.

Offsite adoptions

In addition to having many wonderful cats at our humane center, we also have several felines at the Carytown location of PETCO. If you would like to learn more about these felines or set up an appointment to meet them in person, please call our adoption team at 804-521-1307.

Alumni updates

Our staff and volunteers love to know what our precious adoptees are up to, so please keep us posted! If you would like to share a picture or story of your adopted pet, please send us an email. If you would like to see your pet featured on one of our social media sites, please tell us in your message that we may share your update.

To read the biographies of our regular bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires a first and last name to be used as your screen name.

March 16, 2015

We are extremely happy to announce that 50 pets were adopted last week! We are so grateful to our amazing adoption counselors for their wonderful help uniting these pets with new, loving families. You can help spread the word about our available pets and lifesaving work by "liking" and sharing our social media posts on Facebook and tumblr. You can also follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Our adoption center is open every day of the week: Monday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Friday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m and Sunday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Visit our website to see some of our dogs and cats currently available for adoption, for directions to our Robins-Starr Humane Center, to view the programs and services we offer and more.

Adoption Specials

"Mutt Madness!” All adoption fees for adult dogs are reduced by 15 percent throughout the month of March.

“Feline Fridays” All adoption fees for adult cats will be reduced by 25 percent every Friday in March.

Our friends at Best Bully Sticks are providing a special treat for all dog adopters. While supplies last, every dog adopted from our center will take home a free BullyBox treat sampler pack!

Match Finder tool

If you have not seen the pet you’re looking for among the cats and dogs currently available at our humane center, we recommend that you try our free Match Finder tool. This online tool is designed to help you find your new best friend by automatically emailing you when a pet matching your desired criteria is available. If you have any questions, please contact our amazing adoption team at 804-521-1307.

Offsite adoptions

In addition to having many wonderful cats at our humane center, we also have several felines at the Carytown location of PETCO. If you would like to learn more about these felines or set up an appointment to meet them in person, please call our adoption team at 804-521-1307.

Alumni updates

Our staff and volunteers love to know what our precious adoptees are up to, so please keep us posted! If you would like to share a picture or story of your adopted pet, please send us an email. If you would like to see your pet featured on one of our social media sites, please tell us in your message that we may share your update.

To read the biographies of our regular bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires a first and last name to be used as your screen name.

March 12, 2015

Editors Note: We recently received an update from Mary-Margaret Whitten about the two dogs she has adopted from the Richmond SPCA. We are thrilled to hear that both Andy and Doc are doing so well with their new family. The following was contributed by Andy and Doc's adopter, Mary-Margaret Whitten.

Andy, the newest addition to Mary-Margaret's family.

I grew up with dogs. There has been only one eight-month period in my 30 years of life when I didn't have or live with a dog. I was a freshman at JMU, and I remember missing my dogs and longing for a dog of my own so badly it almost hurt. I grew up with labs mostly and one Dalmatian.

I got my first dog, Emma, immediately after my freshman year of college, and she has been my best friend ever since. She just turned 12 last week, and I cannot imagine life without her. She has taught me more about love and living than I ever imagined possible from a dog. She is my best friend and constant companion.

Three years ago I met my boyfriend Grant. He had just put down his 13-year-old dog who he got the summer after his freshman year in college. He missed her like crazy and always talked about adopting a new dog. About two and a half years ago he expressed his need to adopt a dog but worried it wasn't the right time for it. He feared he wouldn't have enough time for a new dog. I remember telling him that there's never a good time to get a dog. A person just has to do it and adapt their life to fit the new dog.

Doc, while in the care of the Richmond SPCA.

The next day I was at work and I got a text message that read "look what I got!" with a picture of "Watson" (now "Doc Watson;" we call him "Doc") in his kennel. He was a 6-month-old Walker Hound mix. His birthday happened to be the day Grant and I met. I took this to be a good sign. I was ecstatic. I couldn't wait to get off work to meet my new friend.

Recently Grant and I bought a bigger house with a bigger yard that Doc adores. He spends as much time as possible exploring the wooded area back there. He's extremely playful and constantly begging Emma, whose mobility is declining due to advanced hip dysplasia, to play with him. Because we love Doc so much, and we now have the room, we decided it was time to get Doc a friend.

One Friday night my sister texted me the picture of a homeless dog her friend had rescued asking me (somewhat jokingly) did we want to adopt him. The dog looked like Doc to a tee. I was surprised when Grant entertained my thoughts on adopting him. Unfortunately the dog ended up being too sick for us to properly care for him, and we were unable to adopt. However, this started the ball rolling. I woke up Saturday and looked at the Richmond SPCA website, and we decided to go take a look. As we were walking out the door I grabbed a collar and a leash and stuffed them in my bag "just in case."

Vincent, now Andy, while at the Richmond SPCA.

We were immediately drawn to "Vincent" now "Andy". He is a Treeing Coon Hound mix and was hanging out in one of the viewing rooms. His big brown eyes begged us to come in. Jessica B. introduced us to him and gave us all the information we needed to make an informed decision. She literally spent hours with us going over his history and some of the issues he was having as a guest at the Richmond SPCA. After about two hours I said I thought we should just take a spin around the kennels to make sure we were making the right choice.

Andy, Doc and Emma.

After meeting one more dog, for a grand total of ten minutes, I knew - I needed Andy. And he needed us. It's not often that the first dog you encounter is so perfectly matched to you that you cannot walk away. Despite my fears, I couldn't wait to get him home and introduce him to the rest of the gang.

Having Doc prepared us so well for having Andy and acclimating him into our lives was easier than I think it might have been for most. It was definitely a challenge and still often is but every day gets better and better.

Andy is the sweetest, most loving and definitely smartest hound I have ever met. The other dogs love him, and he and Doc are inseparable at times. It is hard to capture in writing how much joy he brings to our lives.

Andy loves living in a house. He doesn't like to be cold and is definitely a creature who enjoys comfort. I love being able to make this happen for him. Having grown up with mostly pure bred dogs, I don't think I'll ever have another. There is something so different about saving a dog's life from picking a puppy from a litter. This is not meant to put down pure breeds - I have one, and I love all dogs. I just really love the feeling of making a difference, and I love these two boys more than anything.

Thank you Richmond SPCA for making this possible, and thank you Jessica for working so hard with us to make Andy's adoption a reality.

To read the biographies of our regular bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires a first and last name to be used as your screen name.

March 09, 2015

We are overjoyed to announce that 54 pets were adopted last week! We are so grateful to our amazing adoption counselors for their wonderful help uniting these pets with new, loving families. You can help spread the word about our available pets and lifesaving work by "liking" and sharing our social media posts on Facebook and tumblr. You can also follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Our adoption center is open every day of the week: Monday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Friday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m and Sunday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Visit our website to see some of our dogs and cats currently available for adoption, for directions to our Robins-Starr Humane Center, to view the programs and services we offer and more.

Adoption Specials

"Mutt Madness!” All adoption fees for adult dogs are reduced by 15 percent throughout the month of March.

“Feline Fridays” All adoption fees for adult cats will be reduced by 25 percent every Friday in March.

Our friends at Best Bully Sticks are providing a special treat for all dog adopters. While supplies last, every dog adopted from our center will take home a free BullyBox treat sampler pack!

Match Finder tool

If you have not seen the pet you’re looking for among the cats and dogs currently available at our humane center, we recommend that you try our free Match Finder tool. This online tool is designed to help you find your new best friend by automatically emailing you when a pet matching your desired criteria is available. If you have any questions, please contact our amazing adoption team at 804-521-1307.

Offsite adoptions

In addition to having many wonderful cats at our humane center, we also have several felines at the Carytown location of PETCO. If you would like to learn more about these felines or set up an appointment to meet them in person, please call our adoption team at 804-521-1307.

Alumni updates

Our staff and volunteers love to know what our precious adoptees are up to, so please keep us posted! If you would like to share a picture or story of your adopted pet, please send us an email. If you would like to see your pet featured on one of our social media sites, please tell us in your message that we may share your update.

To read the biographies of our regular bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires a first and last name to be used as your screen name.

March 05, 2015

Our Dog Jog and 5K Run is so successful at providing vital support for the homeless animals who rely on the Richmond SPCA to save their lives largely because of peer-to-peer fundraising. Our 13th annual event will be presented by Holiday Barn Pet Resorts on Saturday, March 21, but the fundraising got started many months ago. Participant fundraising efforts have been streamlined this year with a new online platform that makes it even easier to share your involvement on social media. There is still time to register (and take advantage of early bird pricing through Friday, March 6) and get started asking your friends and family for their support of your participation in this great community event. Top fundraisers are eligible for great prizes, and all who raise $500 or more in donations will receive a special gift that will be awarded at the Invisible Fence® Brand Awards Ceremony at the event’s conclusion. See how our top individual and team fundraisers are doing at richmondspca.org/race – we so appreciate all of their remarkable support of homeless animals through their tireless fundraising!

Dana Taylor, back right, and a few of her Running Buddies team members at last year's event

We recently talked with Dana Taylor about how she got involved in fundraising for the Dog Jog and 5K Run. Dana is currently in second place overall, having raised $1,545 as the captain of our Running Buddies team, which is made up of volunteers who provide regular enrichment and exercise to the more active dogs in the care of the Richmond SPCA by taking them on runs. The Running Buddies program is generously sponsored by The HelpDesk Company.

Q: Which event are you registered for, the leisurely 1-mile Dog Jog with your pet, or the competitively timed 5K Run?

Some Running Buddies participate only in the Dog Jog with the dogs from the Richmond SPCA, but there are several of us that run the 5K too. There’s a nice 30-45 minute break in between that allows us to finish the 5K and get our Richmond SPCA dogs ready with their “adopt me” bandanas before the Dog Jog actually begins.

Q: When did you first participate in the Dog Jog and 5K Run? Did you fundraise your first year?

This is my third Dog Jog as a Running Buddy, and it will be my second 5K. There are some Running Buddies that have done this for many more years!

Q: Was there any specific inspiration that led you to get involved in raising funds for the Richmond SPCA?

Dana, right, and Running Buddies teammates at the 2013 Dog Jog

This event is great for the Running Buddies, as we are already running with dogs who are available for adoption up to three times a week. That lets us get to know them pretty well. It’s an event that allows us to combine our love of running with our love of animals. We get to see all the great work being done at the Richmond SPCA, so of course we love to raise money for the organization. We’ve had several long-term residents who ran with of us get adopted recently. We fall in love with these dogs and are so thrilled to see them get forever homes. We want to help in any way we can to support the mission of the Richmond SPCA, including outreach and education. It’s really amazing what we learn about these dogs and the attitude and beliefs of the community on our 3 mile runs.

Q: What have been the most effective tools in asking friends and family for support?

Speaking for myself, it’s social media. I’m shameless. Last year, I used pictures of my Richmond SPCA alum, Joey. Anyone who knows me knows Joey, but not everyone knew his life had been at risk in a rural county shelter before he was rescued by the Richmond SPCA. This year, I started earlier, and I think some folks are ready to pay me to stop posting about my fundraising efforts! Around December 27, I started posting links to my fundraising page and told folks they could have a last minute tax write-off and help animals. That was wildly successful! I also used pictures of Altro, a dog that I’d been running with and working with as a Green Team member for over 6 months. I posted a lot of pictures of Altro during our time together, and my friends felt like they knew him. One friend even posted that her donation was for my Running Buddy Altro. All that said, I think if you believe in the cause and in helping animals, your message from the heart that will appear on your page is enough. You don’t have to work with a homeless dog or have adopted an animal from the Richmond SPCA – as long as your request is heartfelt, it’s enough.

It’s also important to use the email tool and not ignore the one-on-one requests. Not everyone likes using social media, and I know several Running Buddies just approach their friends and family about supporting their fundraising efforts.

Q: What’s your best tip for someone who is registered but might be hesitant to get involved as a fundraiser?

I know that it’s hard to ask for money, so on social media, I post the link to my page and type a pretty general message asking for support. I also let people know about all the great programs that are available at the Richmond SPCA and what a great resource it is for our entire community. Again, I think if it’s a cause you believe in and you let your friends and family know that, they will give to support you. I surpassed my first goal of $500 around January 1 and got to $1000 by asking folks to give $5-10. I reached that goal and have increased my goal once again. The point is you don’t have to raise it all at once or try to raise thousands of dollars. The way I see it, every dollar counts!

Q: What are you looking forward to most on March 21?

We all love seeing the community support for the Richmond SPCA. The love of the organization is so evident on that day. Of course, the Running Buddies love to run too, and seeing all the dogs out there for the Dog Jog is so uplifting. (PS – if you’ve adopted from the Richmond SPCA, we love to see our furry friends again!)

Tabitha Hanes is the director of advancement of the Richmond SPCA. To read her biography or that of our other bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires both your first and last name to be used as your screen name.

March 03, 2015

We are overly joyed to announce that 47 pets were adopted last week! We are so grateful to our amazing adoption counselors for their wonderful help uniting these pets with new, loving families. You can help spread the word about our available pets and lifesaving work by "liking" and sharing our social media posts on Facebook and tumblr. You can also follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Our adoption center is open every day of the week: Monday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Friday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m and Sunday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Visit our website to see some of our dogs and cats currently available for adoption, for directions to our Robins-Starr Humane Center, to view the programs and services we offer and more.

Adoption Specials

"Mutt Madness!” All adoption fees for adult dogs are reduced by 15 percent throughout the month of March.

“Feline Fridays” All adoption fees for adult cats will be reduced by 25 percent every Friday in March.

Our friends at Best Bully Sticks are providing a special treat for all dog adopters. While supplies last, every dog adopted from our center will take home a free BullyBox treat sampler pack!

Match Finder tool

If you have not seen the pet you’re looking for among the cats and dogs currently available at our humane center, we recommend that you try our free Match Finder tool. This online tool is designed to help you find your new best friend by automatically emailing you when a pet matching your desired criteria is available. If you have any questions, please contact our amazing adoption team at 804-521-1307.

Offsite adoptions

In addition to having many wonderful cats at our humane center, we also have several felines at the Carytown location of PETCO. If you would like to learn more about these felines or set up an appointment to meet them in person, please call our adoption team at 804-521-1307.

Alumni updates

Our staff and volunteers love to know what our precious adoptees are up to, so please keep us posted! If you would like to share a picture or story of your adopted pet, please send us an email. If you would like to see your pet featured on one of our social media sites, please tell us in your message that we may share your update.

To read the biographies of our regular bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires a first and last name to be used as your screen name.

March 02, 2015

Maya, whose life was taken by PETA workers, was the beloved dog of the Zarate family and the companion of their young daughter.

PETA’s hometown newspaper came out with two pieces last week in an effort to protect and defend that organization. The Virginian Pilot ran a so-called news piece that allowed PETA, after months of radio silence about their theft and killing of a family’s beloved dog, Maya, to proclaim how contrite and sad they are about the whole thing and how they fired an employee as a scapegoat. The article portrayed PETA as being “devastated” (well, actually “pretty devastated”) and did not afford anyone who might have a differing perspective, who might think that PETA is crying crocodile tears, to have a single word.

Even more amazing was the made-to-order editorial that appeared in the paper on the same day. It said that Senate Bill 1381, which I worked very hard to urge legislators to pass, was intended to do something about PETA’s massive rate of killing dogs and cats at its facility in Norfolk but that it may have done nothing – this is the new PETA party line since they failed in their fight against the bill’s passage – because it does not say anything about euthanasia. The editors of the paper’s editorial page are either unaware of Virginia animal laws or intend to mislead their readers because, while the bill does not contain the word “euthanasia,” it most definitely affects PETA’s continued ability to euthanize. In Virginia, private animal shelters are permitted to have people who are not licensed veterinarians take the lives of the animals in their care, assuming the animal has passed any applicable hold period, using controlled drugs so long as the non-vet was trained by a licensed vet.

As we all know, PETA sends personnel out far and wide (witness the forays to Accomack) to scoop up dogs and cats that are stray or, as was the case with Maya, owned pets and end their lives. They also have non-veterinarians killing dogs and cats by the thousands at their Norfolk facility. If PETA were to no longer meet the now revised definition of “private animal shelter” because they make no meaningful effort to adopt pets to homes, then they would not be able to rely on non-veterinarians to do this killing for them. So, for the paper to say that the bill does nothing to about euthanasia is simply untrue.

Pictured are pets treated and rehabilitated at the Richmond SPCA in the last month (top to bottom): Napoleon, who is available for adoption (diabetes and cataracts); and recently adopted pets Lexington (chronic respiratory infection), Nadia (cerebellar hypoplasia) and Sid (parvo virus).

Worse is the endorsement the editorial provides of PETA’s conduct. The editorial says that PETA takes in sick and injured animals that no-kill organizations turn away and provides services that have been abandoned by no-kill organizations. Then, it proceeds to list services, every one of which the no-kill Richmond SPCA provides. We provide spaying and neutering services, we provide free and low cost veterinary care, we take in thousands of sick and injured animals annually. In fact, here is the most important point that they are missing: we take in many more animals annually than does PETA, more than half of them are sick or injured when we receive them and WE SAVE THEIR LIVES. We provide veterinary care and rehabilitation for every single treatably sick and injured pet that we take in. And, from my long experience in animal sheltering, I can tell you that the vast majority of sick and injured animals you take in can be treated and restored to reasonable health – they do not need to be killed.

PETA with its massive budget, many times that of our organization, kills nearly all of the animals they take in. Our euthanasia rate last year was less than 1% with an intake of about 3,700 while PETA killed nearly 90% of about 2,600 dogs and cats. It is true that we do not take in feral cats, and no ethical shelter should, but we provide them with free spaying and neutering and rabies vaccinations so that they may be returned to the location where they were trapped by volunteers to live out their lives.

PETA’s apologists need to stop pretending that what PETA does is necessary – it is not necessary, and it is not ethical. In fact, no other community in this state has animals dying in the numbers that die at PETA’s hands in Norfolk. The average euthanasia rate of dogs and cats for private animal shelters statewide is 13 percent (for the 2013 calendar year, as not all 2014 reports are publicly available). If PETA wants to be in the sheltering business, then it needs to do so ethically by using its vast resources to save the lives of every treatably sick and injured animal in its care. No newspaper editor is ever going to be able to responsibly make the case that an organization as massive and rich as PETA is doing the right thing by killing animals that it could well afford to save. And they need to stop broadcasting the untrue information that no-kill shelters like the Richmond SPCA are not taking in sick and injured animals. We take in thousands of them year after year. And we put the money, love and care into rehabilitating them and finding them adoptive homes. Maybe the editors of the Virginian-Pilot should explain why PETA does not do the same.

Robin Robertson Starr is the chief executive officer of the Richmond SPCA. To read her biography or that of our other bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires both your first and last name to be used as your screen name.